Ableton Forum

Wondering if the is a quick and easy way to take two clips on the same track and merge them into one. Kind of like an overdub. I can think of a few ways of doing it, but wondering if there is like a "select two or more clips and hit command M" and it magically merges and places itself in the next slot?

drag it over to arrangement select both and hit cmd-j. after that drag the new merged clip back to session view

the manual included with live is awesome.

stoersignal wrote:drag it over to arrangement select both and hit cmd-j. after that drag the new merged clip back to session view

this.

or ctrl + j in Windows.


just make sure the clips are on the same track and next to each other first

ah! that's right, it will fill in the blank upon consolidation!!

good catch.

sorry for making it harder than it is.

back to the OP...easiest is to solo just those 2 tracks, and record to a third, creating a 2 layer clip

he is not asking about consolidate, keywords 'kinda like overdub'

simmerdown wrote:back to the OP...easiest is to solo just those 2 tracks, and record to a third, creating a 2 layer clip

he is not asking about consolidate, keywords 'kinda like overdub'

Would the end result of each method even be different?

well yeah..consolidate puts them consecutively...overdub, or the two track bounce i describe, puts them on top of eachother, at the same time

Also, pretty sure Consolidate will default to warped Beats mode which may end up sounding different from the original than a resample/rerouting, esp. if you are going to be warping the resulting track

^ that's assuming you're using audio.

i can't think of one time where i have consolidated warped audio though. MIDI yes, audio no. i tend to just drop audio where it goes... either live recording or splicing to the grid.
so i suppose it depends on the application. i don't DJ or do much sampling. when i sample its for one shots which later get assigned to MIDI.

if you record two MIDI clips into an audio clip that also could have different implications, usage and preferred routes.

simmerdown wrote:well yeah..consolidate puts them consecutively...overdub, or the two track bounce i describe, puts them on top of eachother, at the same time

I see. I mis-read the question.

i can't think of one time where i have consolidated warped audio though.

I do it from time to time when I'm splicing together sections of drum loops for fills etc. to make them easier to move around and handle or add as clips in Session view

Hello Adam,

There are two ways that immediately come to mind, that have been loosely represented above. Based on your original post, you may already have these in mind -- The short answer, is there is no button that instantly bounces your audio to the next available channel.

My preferred way is to:


1) Create a fresh new audio channel (change input to no input if you use any external inputs, so you don't get background noise). This channel will effectively act as a bus.
2) Route channels outputs you want to bounce (merge) to the bus you just created. (Also, probably change record monitoring to Off so you don't blow your earholes out.)
3) arm recording on the bus channel, and select relevant clips, and press enter until you have recorded what you need.
4) Do whatever you want with the extra channel, delete it, whatever.
5) Reset your audio routing to Master (or their respective busses, wherever they were before.


Funken mentioned the Resample method, which is what I used to use before I started using the above method. I'm only explaining this alternative way as there might be some uses for it that the above solution doesn't provide (example, the above works great in the studio, but you can't really use it during a live performance)


1) Create a fresh new audio channel to act as the destination bus.
2) Set audio input to "Resample" - This effectively captures any sound that Live is sending out to the master (it does not capture master channel effects)
3) Mute any channels you don't want merged (or solo the ones you do)
4) Arm recording on your bus and record at will.


I prefer the first way, as it is very quick and simple, and I find it faster than mute/soloing the channels I want.

I find myself using this when I have effects that are randomly generated, and for the most part in the track that's okay, but at certain points I need it to sound a certain exact way (leading into drops, etc).

Wow, thanks for all the replies. Somehow I forgot to check the "notify me when reply is posted" box like I usually do and I had no idea that you all were chiming. In. Thanks so much for the info!